Tom McClintock on Tax Reform

2004 former Republican Challenger CA Governor

Repeal car tax by reducing government waste & duplication

Q: If you repeal the recent car tax increase, how would you make up the $4 billion in revenue?

McCLINTOCK: It is not hard to find waste in a state budget of a state spending as much as California and produces as little.
Simply restoring the state government the same freedom that every family and business has to shop around for the best service at the lowest price, we would save about $9 billion across all departments.
Streamlining the agencies duplicating federal functions, there is another $67 billion of savings there. Simply conforming our workers' compensation law to Arizona's, it would lift a burden from the job sector,
[and provide] $2.5 billion dollar of direct savings. If you look at Gov. Pat's Browns last year in office when the state provided service, he spent an inflation-adjusted dollar less than half of what is being spent right now to do all of that.

Source: Recall debate in Walnut Creek
Sep 3, 2003

Voted NO on 2003-04 California state budget

Mark my words: this budget solves nothing. It sets in motion still bigger deficits to come. The day that it is signed will be the first day of the budget crisis of 2004.

Began push to abolish 'Car Tax' in 1998

When I began the drive to abolish California's car tax in 1998, one of the more interesting aspects of the polling was that registered Democrats favored getting rid of the tax as much as Republicans. And all voters were convinced that a Democrat
would be more prone than a Republican to favor abolition "because it would help working families like mine." How ironic that having come safely through the election, the first major act of the legislature's Democrats was to triple the car tax.